


A Shield Must Have a King

by Ismer



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Bondage, Captivity, Dubious Consent, Emotional Manipulation, M/M, Masochism, Painplay, Verbal Humiliation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-12
Updated: 2018-12-12
Packaged: 2019-09-16 20:59:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16961355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ismer/pseuds/Ismer
Summary: When the crystal took his king, Gladio was left without a purpose, to wait for his return. But does Ardyn see him as more than a tool? Or does he just like to play mind games?





	A Shield Must Have a King

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Choi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Choi/gifts).



 

“I hope you can appreciate how much work went into creating the events that finally severed you from that spoiled fool you call a prince.”

 

“ _King_ ,” Gladio corrected his captor persistently through clenched teeth. His jaw was set defiantly and his muscles coiled for action, although his eyes were covered and his arms bound so tightly to his chest he could barely draw breath.

 

Ardyn just clicked his tongue dismissively at the soldier’s attempts to rebel. He wasn’t threatened - he sounded amused, pitying even. It made Gladio feel more pathetic than if he’d simply been ignored.  

 

“You must feel so lost without him, you poor thing. What was it like watching your precious crystal _eat him_?”

 

Ardyn drew his fingers through Gladio’s hair, the spiky fluff reminding him of a black chocobo’s crest. It must have been the seventieth time he repeated the motion, yet the soldier still tried to bow his head away from the touch.

 

He would get used to it eventually.

 

“Noct will be back. What happens to me doesn’t matter.”

 

“Of course it doesn’t,” Ardyn agreed candidly, dragging out the sting with a chuckle. “It doesn’t matter at all.”

 

The soldier hissed at the bite of daemon-sharp nails raking down the back of his shoulder, dragging skin and ink away.

 

“What happens to you now is meaningless. A king without a shield is still a king...”

 

Gladio hated the thumb that pressed unrepentantly into the fresh welts, smearing his blood as it welled up. He hated his body for straining away, not because it hurt but because he _liked_ that it hurt. Most of all, he hated being sure that Ardyn knew what it did to him.

 

“... But a shield without a king is _nothing_.”

 

Even blinded, he could hear the grin in Ardyn’s words. And from the very bottom of his heart, Gladio wished he disagreed.

 

“He’s coming back,” Gladio tried to growl, but with Ardyn’s hand suddenly on his throat it came out as a choked whisper.

 

“If he _does_ come back, you already know it won’t be just to validate your pitiful life.” Ardyn let the jab settle over his captive as he squeezed, almost massaging, rough fingers adding painful pressure and making Gladio see spots under the blindfold before easing up just enough to repeat. And the soldier shuddered, not because he couldn’t get enough air, but because he _loved_ being dangled over the edge of danger.

 

“In the meantime, you just might find you like it here.” Those lips were suddenly right on his ear, warm air glazing over his sweating brow and down his neck. “You’ll learn I have many more uses for a good man than just fireside kinship and _cannon fodder_.”

 

“Noct isn’t like you. I’m not just-- _ulkk!_ ” Ardyn squeezed, harder this time, cutting him off.

 

“You only _wish_ you could be so important as to give your life for him, and now he’s even deprived you of _that_ , the one thing you existed for!” Ardyn hissed the words sharply in his ear. “You wish the name _Gladiolus Amicitia_ wasn’t to be just another in a long line of glorified tombstones, the disposable toolery of a poisoned lineage. You fight for a legacy of indolent clods passing on a stolen crown.”

 

“It’s… my duty,” Gladio managed, as Ardyn’s grip on his throat withdrew enough that he could speak.

 

“Listen to you. I bet you never stood a chance, did you? This was never your choice. You don’t even _own_ yourself.”

 

With that assertion, the hand in his long hair suddenly gripped and held tightly, making his scalp tingle, and Ardyn sank his teeth into the soldier's muscled shoulder. Gladio couldn’t stop a full-body flinch as the pain shocked through his core, immediately followed by the warmth of pleasure. After hours of this teasing, he wasn’t sure how much longer he could stifle what this bastard was stirring in him. Enemy or not, Ardyn had learned in a day what it had taken other intimate partners years to deliver. 

  

"You think... it should bother me?" Gladio croaked between panting breaths. "I shouldn't want to s-serve... him?"

 

"Oh, no," his enemy crooned. "You can want whatever you want. You're only a man, after all. I think what bothers you, deep down in your gut, is knowing that it's  _all_ you want and you're worthless without it."

 

Finally, his captor graciously let up, tongue lapping almost gently at the bite marks he’d left, and Gladio couldn’t have been more torn between his want for more and his hate for his own weakness. He found it easier to raise his armor again as Ardyn’s touches and voice returned to their usual gentle mocking.

 

“It’s just as well. If you must be owned, then I may decide to let you be mine.” A soft, but unsettling chuckle. Those damn fingers in his hair _again_. “After all, a shield must have a king.”

**Author's Note:**

> What if Gladio disappeared right after the Crystal took Noctis? The others probably thought he'd gone to mourn or deal with their friend's disappearance in his own way. But what if...?


End file.
